Share this:

10 Comments

He’s so adorable! I’ve been doing the same. Fortunately, it’s so hot this weekend that the heat saps our dogs’ energy. Of course, if I don’t do SOMETHING with them, then they start bouncing off the walls the moment it cools down in the evening.

We’ve had our two year old GSD for four months. He’d been in an outside kennel all his life and had never been for a proper walk – although he’d been exercised in a large field. He’s doing so well in many ways – good with children, with no distractions fairly obedient, getting used to a new routine with us very well. And good at his training classes. So far, seems to be very good with other dogs BUT he is dog obsesessed. Possibly because he never met any when he was exercised in his previous life. So any time we meet a dog on a walk, he won’t pay attention to anything EXCEPT the DOG!! Because he is so huge and because lots of people (and dogs) are scared of him, it is becoming a big problem for me. Whilst he will come when called in a training situation, he won’t if he is off the lead, on a walk and has seen a dog. It’s even difficult when he is on the lead, as he strains to get to any dog he sees and inevitably worries the owners. It’s not that he’s aggressive, he just wants to play. I know this because some people I’ve met on our walks are fine and love him to play with their dogs. He plays beautifully – so far! I’ve tried feeding him treats whilst walking past dogs, but he is far more interested in the dog than the treat.
Any ideas that might help – please!!!

We only have three dogs in our training class (including Blu) and yes, he does stare at one of them, who also stares back. My trainer says it’s because the other dog is young and Blu is suggesting to him that he behaves himself and doesn’t try to take liberties. To stop this, one of the trainers stands in between them. I think if they were both off the leads they would play. However, it’s not a massive problem in that it doesn’t happen throughout the training session. Had another problem on this morning’s walk. In a secure field where I walk Blu, two spaniels arrived whilst I was talking to someone with a femal lab, whom Blu had tired of trying to play with. She was telling him off and he backed away – good! However, Blu zoomed off to the spaniels and I knew if I called him, he wouldn’t respond. Luckily this time the spaniels’ owner didn’t mind. When she eventually left the field – some way from me, Blu didn’t have a clue where I was (so intent as he was on the other dogs) and couldn’t even hear me calling. However, when he did – he literally galloped over to me – loads of praise, of course!! But of course, it’s an ongoing massive problem.